'Voyage' skipper David Hedison discusses his life's journeys

Hedison played Capt. Lee Crane on TV's 'Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea'

Recognized widely as Capt. Lee Crane in Irwin Allen’s 1960’s sci-fi/adventure TV series, “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea,” David Hedison’s credits began long before and lasted well after his underwater “voyages” ended (see www.davidhedison.com).

In only his second film, “The Fly,” a big sci-fi/horror hit of the ’50s, Hedison received top billing playing scientist Andre Delambre, who is transformed into a creepy human/bug hybrid.

“I was under contract to 20th Century Fox when another contract player, Rick Jason, turned down the role and I was next in line,” recalled Hedison. “The Studio gave me that ‘star’ treatment, so I was given top billing above Vincent Price and Herbert Marshall. Very embarrassing!”

Unlike other sci-fi clunkers of the period, the screenplay by James Clavell was well written.

“I knew if we could get that script onto film, it would go through the roof and that’s exactly what happened,” said Hedison. “We made it in 18 shooting days. ‘The Fly’ and ‘Peyton Place’ were the top moneymaking films for Fox in 1958.”

Although Hedison’s face was hidden for part of the film, that didn’t bruise the young up-and-coming actor’s ego. “In fact, it made me better, because I had to act with my whole body to get Andre’s ‘distress’ across.”

Two years after “The Fly,” Hedison had his first encounter with Irwin Allen in the dinosaur drama, “The Lost World,” but wasn’t impressed with the production.

“It was all done on the back lot and it showed,” he said. “The script was quite bad. None of the characters had any kind of development and were only there to react to the special effects.”

But he did costar with Claude Rains, in one of his last performances.

“He was a lovely man, very soft-spoken,” recalled Hedison. “He told the most wonderful stories. I would sit in his dressing room and continually pester him — to tell me about working with all those wonderful old movie people. To this day, I don’t know why Rains didn’t kick me out!”

Hedison reunited with Allen in 1964 for “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea,” which would win four primetime Emmys for technical achievements (e.g. Editing, Special Effects) during its four season run. But unlike Allen’s other big hit, “Lost in Space,” the director/producer wouldn’t permit the cast to inject any humor into the scripts.

“Irwin Allen would yell at us every time we tried, so we quit trying,” Hedison recalled. “He even made us re-shoot scenes, if they were too ‘light-hearted.’ Irwin decreed ‘Voyage’ would be grim. So we were grim, and the show was grim.”

Hedison says he often did his own stunts, the most dangerous being “whenever they made me fight between explosions and fire.” Today, he suffers from hearing loss.

“They did not issue us earplugs on the ‘Voyage’ set,” he explained. “I was also hurt in an explosion on a Polish movie set of ‘Undeclared War’ in 1990 — they used too much explosive and I was placed way too close — but it’s probably more of an age thing with contributing factors. I’ll be 87 in May.”

After “Voyage,” Hedison appeared in many film and TV roles, including a regular on the CBS soap, “The Young and the Restless,” in 2004. He was cast as American agent Felix Leiter in two James Bond films 16 years apart, “Live and Let Die” and “Licensed to Kill.”

“Live and Let Die” reunited Hedison with Roger Moore, the two having worked together earlier on TV’s “The Saint.” He recalled Moore’s sense of humor, but could he provide examples?

“Sadly, nothing you can print!” he said. “Roger has this ability to lighten up any set and the actors and crews loved him. We’ve been friends for over 50 years now, and he is still the very kind, generous man I met in 1963.”

Currently, Hedison appears in the “The Green Girl,” a feature-length documentary about the late actress Susan Oliver, who Hedison briefly dated in the ’60s (see http://thegreengirlmovie.com). The film premiered in Los Angeles on March 15 and, according to director/producer George Pappy Jr., will be released for home video and streaming/download distribution soon.